Tag Archive: Parker Brothers

Netflix is now carrying a new documentary television series that delves into the creators behind some of our favorite toys from the recent, and not so recent past. The Toys That Made Us features four episodes in its first season of streaming, each focused on a toy line that should bring in a good cross-section of fandom. The choices for the first shows include Kenner’s vintage Star Wars action figures and playsets, Hasbro’s G.I. Joe, with an emphasis on the 3 3/4″ line of action figures, Mattel’s Barbie, and the Mattel’s Masters of the Universe. No doubt Barbie and G.I. Joe should pull in the older crowd, while the latter half of G.I. Joe and Star Wars will pull in the kids of the 1970s and early 1980s, and Masters of the Universe the kids of the 1980s.

Not a show for kids and not another show about toy collectors, the series devotes plenty of each hour to interviews with designers, marketing, other businessmen discussing the nuts and bolts of negotiating deals, like the lawyer for Kenner discussing the greatest toy deal negotiation ever, and the later not-so-great negotiation because of a loose-lipped CEO. The Barbie episode features a Barbie expert continually bashing the character as a “hooker” as if she has some sort of love-hate relationship with the doll. But the politics of toymaking is interesting fodder for the right audience. Should it be a surprise that toymakers have the same ugly corporate politics, the downsizing, the layoffs, and the takeovers, like every other company? Prepare yourself for several CEOs and designers as they tiptoe, or not, around decisions and employers they wrestled with in the past as toys and brands came and went. The creators look back both with nostalgia and anger at the former toy companies that eventually terminated their employment. So look for an unusual take on these toys and these companies.

The next four episodes will be launched on Netflix later this year, and include Hello Kitty, Transformers, Star Trek, and LEGO. Sometimes what the show chooses to tell is as interesting as how the show tells it. The eight toy lines chosen no doubt came from the producer’s own focus groups, like the ideas behind some of the toys they discuss. If The Toys That Made Us really is a one-time thing, someone else should come along and continue the idea with all the other major brands and influences.

We want to see an episode on Marx toys, including little toy soldiers and the 12-inch action figure series. We also want to see a history of the broad Mego line of figures, Hot Wheels, Stretch Armstrong, and Big Jim. How about companies like Fisher Price, Playskool, Playmobil, and Radio Flyer? A series like this needs to cover more “recent” but still classic toy lines, too, like My Little Pony, Cabbage Patch Kids, Strawberry Shortcake, and figure out a way to capture famous classic toys like Spirograph, Tinker Toys, Play-Doh, Etch-A-Sketch, Erector Sets, Lincoln Logs, and the ultimate multi-license toy, Viewmaster. How about a tour of the Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers factories of the past? Who put out more great board games than these companies? It’s easy to imagine entire episodes on the history of games like Clue/Cluedo and Monopoly. And how about featuring a current game company that’s been around for decades, like Wizards of the Coast?

The Forbidden Zone was once a paradise. Your kind made a wasteland of it…. Would an ape make a human Monopoly game, with ape street names? … Don’t look for it, Taylor. You may not like what you find. –Dr. Zaius (paraphrasing a bit)

In its most recent earnings statement, toymaker and licensor Hasbro reported that its gaming unit revenue for the second quarter was up significantly over last year. Its franchise brand revenues, driven by growth in games like Monopoly, resulted in a 21 percent revenue increase for the company, to $545.7 million. What does that mean for fanboys and fangirls? Not only is Monopoly thriving, the 115-year-old marathon board game about real estate that we’ve all played over the years is here to stay. Although it was slow to adapt to computing (the bootleg game Monopole was popular before then-owner Parker Brothers jumped in), to keep up with the times Monopoly partnered with municipalities, sports teams, movies, and other brands to keep Monopoly fresh. What? You missed the U.S. Navy edition? The Ford Thunderbird edition? The Superman Returns and Pokémon editions? The Heinz, Doctor Who, and Batman and Robin editions?

It’s a madhouse. A madhouse! … We finally really did it. You maniacs! –Astronaut George Taylor

For its next franchise tie-in, Hasbro has partnered with 20th Century Fox Consumer Products to release this summer’s strangest mash-up game: Monopoly: Planet of the Apes Retro Art Edition. It’s not just your typical Monopoly tie-in with a popular franchise.

Ready for this holiday season, Hasbro is releasing a new Star Wars Clue game this month. And the plot of the game is nicely timed to tie with the plot of December’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The goal is to locate the plans to the Death Star, figure out who stashed them, and determine the best route to escape.

This beautiful new game is Star Wars gold for two reasons. First, it’s a twist on Clue (Cluedo in the UK) and Clue is always fun if you get enough people to play. “But I already have seven versions of Clue plus Star Wars Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly!” you say. This one adds some three-dimensional color for good family night play. And that new 3D take is the second reason this is sure to be a fun, new game: It evokes the great cardboard-backed action figure playsets from the 1970s, like the Creature Cantina, the Hoth AT-AT Playset, the Cloud City Playset, and even the wall inserts on the full-sized Death Star playset. It also looks a bit like the classic Sub Search from Milton Bradley.

How often do you find your favorite game on the Web playable for free?

When I was a kid, my favorite board game was Bionic Crisis. It was based on The Six Million Dollar Man TV series and was a close cousin to my brother’s favorite board game, the three-dimensional Sub Search, which was a classic hide-and-seek game like Battleship. Bionic Crisis had a deck of cards, red and yellow Lite-Brite pegs, and a pile of circuit board cards that fit in one of four orange, plastic video-game looking consoles.

After borg.com launched, my brother found me an original edition of the other board game based on the TV series–The Six Million Dollar Man game. It featured a fairly standard move-around-the-board format, where players had to complete four missions via four playing pieces, a deck of cards and a “high-tech” looking spinner.

Now, our friends at the Six Million Dollar Blog have created two online versions of these classic Parker Brothers board games, and you can play them both now or any time for free.